Peter Molyneux Q&A @ GameSpot

by Dhruin, 2006-08-15 12:23:00

Coming out of the GameSpot's UK office is an interview with Peter Molyneux. This one doesn't have any direct relevancy to RPGs with nary a mention of Fable 2 but some of the general development comments may be of interest. For example, Peter sees the PC as more of a "casual" platform, World of Warcraft aside:

GSUK: The Movies and Black & White 2 didn't enjoy the same level of success as previous Lionhead titles, despite being critically well received. Would you put their lack of success down to marketing?

PM: It's very easy to blame marketing departments and publishers when sales don't live up to expectations, but in reality there are many, many reasons for what happened, so I'll just focus on three. Firstly, the PC market has been declining; the number of PC-only titles that have been successful is nonexistent. And, in fact, The Movies was, in sales terms, the most successful original IP over the Christmas period. Secondly, launching any game over the Christmas period is challenging, as there is so much focus on a few games which have massive marketing budgets behind them. Thirdly, I think the type of people playing and buying PC games has changed. If you exclude World of Warcraft, there seems to be many more casual gamers playing games on the PC than hardcore gamers.